Questions about lighing-sunlight vs Flourescent>

[DETAILKING]

If you are afraid to use SMR, then go with PPCL. It might not tackle all the swirls but will help, and will clean the paint real nice.

Anyhow, Z5 should make a difference. Try to get on 2-3 coats before evaluating. I hope you bought the Z7 wash....it works really well with the system and adds gloss and slickness wash after wash.

The dealer swirled up my BMW too, but used a THICK silicone dressing that hid them so I didn't see them till I washed it the first time....WHAT A SURPRISE.

Remember to use only high quality MF towels or 100% cotton towels to buff off zaino, to prevent further swirling.

I have used SMR on many cars and to tell you the truth it depends on the car (paint). Some cars are more finicky with abrasives, some cars it made hardly any difference on, and some cars, like my bmw, it worked wonders on.

Best of luck!

Looking forward to these pics!

[YoSteve]

there's only a few types of lighting situations into where I can see my fine scratches and the sun isn't one of them. Could be the sky around me does a great job of diffusing the light (clouds etc). Some parking lot lights do the trick but it depends on the color, the yellower or whiter ones don't show as much as the orangey ones.

it depends on how your car responds to lighting, my guess is in the garage, try to see you car in a few different kinds of light, otherwise take to to places right after you detail where you can see the flaws (and bring your stuff )

[Guess My Name]

I could see where different type of light show up different things.

[puterbum]

Originally posted by dremelius
Since I happen to know a little about light and optics, I thought that I would try to define a few terms that the people on this forum are concerned with and explain what happens when light strikes a surface.

Let’s limit this discussion to visible light and a surface that is fairly flat – like clear coat. When light strikes a surface, energy must be conserved. The light must be reflected, absorbed, transmitted or any combination of the three. In the case of a clear coat, all three things happen.

There are two types of reflection, specular and diffuse. A specular reflection is what you get from a mirror and the light has a well-defined direction. A diffuse reflection is what you get from imperfections on the surface of the material and the light is scattered in all directions. In the case of clear coat these imperfections can be grime on top of the surface or a scratch or pit into the surface. What everyone is looking for in the surface of their clear coat are zero imperfections (perfectly clean with no pits or scratches). In the real world, there is no such thing. There are always imperfections. Even high quality optics used in laser systems are specified with a qualifier called scratch-dig which describes how many and how large the imperfections may be.

The total amount of light reflected from the surface of a transmitting material is determined by what the material is made of and at what angle the light is striking it. When you see a reflection of yourself in an ordinary glass window, the amount of light that is reflected from the window’s first surface to your eye is 4% of the light that struck the window. There is another 4% that is reflected from the second surface when the transmitted light exits the glass. This is why you sometimes see two images that are slightly offset from each other. A window made from a different material, such as plastic, will have a different reflectivity. I don’t know what the reflectivity of the surface of clear coat is. As stated above, this reflectivity is determined by the exact chemical make up of the clear coat. As far as the angle issue, as you start looking at the reflected light at steeper and steeper angles the reflectivity of the surface goes up. When you get steep enough you get to what is called grazing incidence. At grazing incidence almost 100% of the light is reflected. When you look at a car and there are places that look so shiny that they look white, you are looking at white light that has been reflected at grazing incidence.

To review, light has struck the clear coat and some of the light has been reflected at the surface as specular and diffuse reflections.

The remaining light is transmitted into the clear coat. Since the clear coat is “clear,” very little of the light is absorbed. When light is absorbed in a material, most of that energy is converted to heat. What can happen in the clear coat is bulk scattering. This happens when there are particles in the clear coat that are large enough to reflect photons (light). I would hope that a good clear coat has very low bulk scattering. On a side note, my guess is that when a manufacturer advertises that a product is “99.9% optically perfect,” the manufacturer is trying to quantify the scattering properties of the product.

Ok, the light has now reached the clear coat to paint interface. As when the light entered the clear coat at the air to clear coat interface and a small part was reflected, likewise a small part of the light will be reflected at the clear coat to paint interface. There is always a reflection at the interface of two different materials.

White light has now reached the paint. The properties of the paint determine what wavelengths (colors) are reflected and what wavelengths are absorbed. This is what determines the color of the car. Again, the reflection can be a mix of specular and diffuse depending on the surface. The reflected light makes the trip back through the clear coat and to your eye.

So what are we doing when we apply a coating (Klasse, Zaino, Wax etc.) to our clear coat? Why is the car shinier?

I don’t know for sure. Given what I understand about optics, three things could be happening.

1) 1) The coating itself has a higher reflectivity. I don't think that this is a good answer. I don’t think there is much difference in the materials surface reflectance because both the clear coat and the Klasse – Zaino type coatings(not wax) are also basically plastics.

2) The product fills in photon size imperfections thus increasing specular and decreasing diffuse reflections. I think that this is the largest effect.

3) I didn’t mention the wave properties of light above, but briefly, light waves can interfere constructively and destructively. Since there are reflections at each material interface, there are standing waves set up in the coatings. This can either enhance or degrade the reflectivity of a surface. I don’t know how much of an effect this can have but my guess is that it is not large.

Sorry for the length, I’m not sure why I decided to post this. Maybe I just wanted to write it down to bring my own thoughts together. Maybe it will help to solidify some of your thoughts. I hope that I am not bombarding you with information that your not interested in or insulting you with the obvious. Any criticism and/or thoughts are welcome.

Quote taken from This Post.

[puterbum]

Originally posted by dremelius
2) The product fills in photon size imperfections thus increasing specular and decreasing diffuse reflections. I think that this is the largest effect.

Maybe this is why Zaino gives such a high shine and reflectivity is because of its (Z-5) ability to fill minor imperfections so well and also its clarity which allows escaping reflected light to go through the sealant without any internal reflections from the sealant?

Did that make any sense whatsoever?

[C240]

After reading this tread I want to go the gas station and several store parking lots and look at my finish. Just to think my neighbors think im wierd just imagine people seing you inspecting your finidh at some parking lot